storytelling through food

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Our minds speak many languages. Because our body’s very design is multi-lingual. Consider the diversity of information we receive through our senses. The smell of a room. The color of a dress. The feel of mahogany. They all inform beyond what our ears discern. Part of the mystery of these languages is how we move the narrative forward from place to place. It’s a turning of a page into a new chapter. The story continues but we have quitted the damp tavern and into light of Spring. The moment just before […]

They are a people rooted in design. From early frescoes of Padua to pointed Prada wingtips, Italians are born into fluency with line, shape and color. Unafraid to exploit pigments from the earth. And dream them into patterns. To adorn the world. To tell stories through pictures. To refine the art of dining. So what might be a color so exotic, so profane that would halt the Sicilian stylist? Or the Sienna Chef? Actually the jury is still out. But […]

Walk the halls of Rome’s most sacred museum. You might feel small under the ceiling of the Sistine. Or humbled by craftsmanship it holds. But what you are actually experiencing is NASCAR played out over centuries. Daring, imaginative and experimental. Icons like Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo show us the extraordinary in the ordinary. They muscle through the curves and mash the petal in the straightaway. Each stroke a gear shift. It was in this crucible of the Vatican where one artistic idea fed […]

Chicago is deep and round. New York, wide and leathery. Naples, bubbly and scantly dressed. But Detroit is a city of red tops. An ear-deafening crunch. Sharp edges and sharp cheddar. Oreganoed and oiled with garlic. This pizza bakes in a 500 degree oven not far from where iron was smelted, steel stamped and vehicles rolled off the factory line. This is the hidden treasure of the Motor city just behind the auto-industry, soulful blues and Greek-town. Done right it […]

Her smile can only be seen at night. It lights up the sky. Yet her attention is fickle. She saunters into the month. Just when hearts relax under the warmth of her beams, she snails an exit. We are powerless to retain her. Behind the veil she disappears. And in the solemn darkness we stand empty. But not empty handed. She leaves gifts. From her garden we eat mystery. Small fruits of the earth. Silky sponge with enough tooth to masquerade as meat. […]

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The leap to extraordinary is elusive. It’s beyond a careful juxtaposition of luxury ingredients with profane techniques. Or profane ingredients and luxurious stylings. It’s beyond turning the crank of success from yesterday’s inventive moment. Rather it’s a study in delight. That which is remarkable surprises us. It’s a union of the convergent and the divergent. It catches our attention in one move of the pendulum, then disappears in the next. Astrophysicists refer to this dynamic as a Third Gravitating Body. Roy calls it […]

Ferris Bueller tells us to “go home, it’s over.” The stage manager explains what is about to happen in Our Town. Hamlet acknowledges that we’re watching. All examples when the fourth wall is broken: when a character in a show speaks directly to us. Their eyes meet ours and we are no longer pious spectators. We participate. Our reaction speaks back to them. Cooking is performance art. And yet it’s a hidden drama. For unless you have the chef’s table, the […]

She steps through theater air. Her hair, a radiant gold, swaying like an Tupelo porch swing. Her voice piercing and melodic. Notes of apricot and honeydew hang like ornaments. She smells of honeysuckle and wears a glycerin smile. Her name Tokaj (“toe-kye”). She is born from northeastern Hungary. Her audience often summoned by royal degree. He is a man of the inner mountain with large, thick hands. The mere sight of them a humbles us with thoughts of heavy work […]

Airplanes only arrive in the evening. They deposit fresh tourists, then whisk away the fulfilled. The landing strip is large enough to land a jet. Though you’d never be able to tell by the quiet landscape. It might as well be called Aspen. The Aspen of Hunan, China. Except there is no skiing. No six-foot tall snow bunnies wearing furs and Prada boots. No ski bums staffing restaurants. This is China. Elegant and serene. A culture infused with black tea, yellow […]